The Blog of Fly Fishing in New York City's Parks. Currently there are more than two dozen fresh water lakes and ponds open to the public.

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Hackensack River Carp fly fishing

Brett Park today, just as the tide is going out. The weather was beautiful. The Hackensack
River is full with carp in this area.

There is a flat area here the only problem is the flat is soft; extremely soft. Some maps
caution that the area has 45 mm of soft sinking mud.

It is dangerous to walk the flats without this information. I have been making trips to this park
for several years and trying to find hard spots on the flats. Without knowing where to walk
it is truly dangerous.

I like to sit and watch the flats here. It is peaceful looking as the tide pulls the river out to sea.
But I came to catch carp. So I put on my Orvis waders and got down to work. The first few steps
felt solid. As I reached the two meter mark, I began to sink into the mud.

At three meters out, the mud was at my knee! This is what makes this area dangerous. It
is very easy to loose footing and fall into the water. Since the bottom is mud there is
almost no way to get back on ones feet.

Off in the distance the tide has already left the flats. The only thing on the flats now are
small birds and slow moving turtles.

What appears to be a rock, in the lower left hand corner of the picture, is a big slow moving
turtle.

My waders after an hour

Closer look at the small birds of the flats.

The tide is completely out of the flats. I was not able to walk on the flats beyond the
tree laying on it's side.